Donald Trump's family business is breaking ground on an accelerated project in Vietnam as the country's government seeks an updated trade agreement with the United States.
The North Korean leader proclaimed a new era of naval power that will project his reclusive regime's nuclear capabilities Tuesday as he commissioned a 5,000-ton destroyer. read more
Netanyahu's US strategy unravels with interim Iran deal. Trump pursues settlement, ignores Israeli objections. Netanyahu caught between US pressure and domestic backlash. Israeli leader increasingly sidelined by US, sources say. Iran gains regional leverage as Israel loses influence.
A study on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness has finally been published after being blocked from a government health journal. read more
The NBC News poll asked American adults which historical event they thought was the country's biggest accomplishment in its 250 years.
The Lincoln Memorial should be green with envy: This reflecting pool stayed clear
www.politico.com
... Still blue waters, abundant waterfowl, promenading tourists and barely a whiff of mildew -- that is the vision President Donald Trump has struggled to turn into reality this month at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
But that has long been the reality just a mile-and-a-half down the National Mall, where another reflecting pool floats just under Capitol Hill -- and under the radar -- without a scummy green film floating on top.
As the algae-tinged drama has played out at the Lincoln Memorial, little attention has been paid to its sister pond which is slightly smaller, more obscure and managed by a different entity -- the Architect of the Capitol, not the National Park Service.
Both are expensive and challenging to maintain, but the trapezoid-ish Capitol Reflecting Pool hasn't faced the same intractable problems that have plagued the long and skinny pool to the west.
"Anytime you have a water feature in general ... they are beautiful, they're amazing, but they're problematic because they degrade faster over time than pretty much anything else you're going to have," Architect of the Capitol Thomas Austin said in an interview Wednesday. "They require pumps, require pipes " corrosion, animals, diseases, bacteria, algae. There's a lot of things that go along with that."
Austin's agency drains the Capitol pool each fall and sometimes in the spring to evaluate the basin and make repairs. Employees go in with heavy equipment to "remove the sludge that collects throughout the year," according to a 2017 AOC report. ...
New science on algae die-offs is too late for the Reflecting Pool
www.sciencenews.org
... The newly painted Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. was supposed to be "American Flag blue." Instead, on June 16, the water turned an un-American shade of sickly green as an algal bloom burst through the water. While experts keep trying to eradicate the unsightly bloom, a research team has revealed new insights into how mass algal demise might happen naturally.
A sudden algal die-off could be caused by an interaction between iron and hydrogen peroxide, researchers report June 25 in Science. The chemical reaction produces reactive molecules that burst cell membranes apart. Death could spread from a single cell to collapse an algal bloom if conditions are right. While the results could explain why at least some algal blooms die off, the findings can't turn the Reflecting Pool blue. The situation there may be too far gone ...
Meanwhile, memory-chip maker Micron announced quarterly results yesterday and talked about a 85% gross margin ...
Micron Profit Surges 15-Fold as Margin Nears 85%
www.trendforce.com
Crowds Walk Out of Trump's State Fair Speech, Video Appears to Show
www.newsweek.com
... A viral video appearing to show attendees leaving President Donald Trump's speech midway through his remarks is spreading widely online, prompting debate over crowd engagement at the event.
A clip shared on social media platform X, which has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, appears to show people walking toward exits during Trump's June 24 speech on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Newsweek analysis of official C-SPAN footage from the event found the widely shared moment corresponds to 9:08 p.m. local time"roughly halfway through the speech, not near its conclusion.
A separate post from Jared Poland, who was reporting live from the event on the ground, said: "The crowd has really thinned out since Trump began speaking around 8:50pm." ...
Internal White House documents undercut Trump's Reflecting Pool vandalism claims
www.msn.com
... Internal White House documents about the issues at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool seem to undercut President Donald Trump's claims that the pool had been vandalized, according to a new report.
Trump blamed alleged "vandals" for damaging the pool after crews recently completed a more than $16 million renovation. Video of the bottom layer of paint peeling off in the pool and of green algae taking over nearly the entire structure has circulated online for several days, and some political experts have said the pool itself has become a "symbol" of the Trump administration's incompetence.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration has been aware of the issues the pool faces for a while. Instead of admitting to the issues, the government has sought to blame alleged vandals instead, according to the report.
"Government documents obtained by The New York Times show that while National Park Service workers found two cuts in sections of foam between the pool's expansion joints, those were not directly related to the 'American flag blue' coating that is now peeling, or to the algae that has turned the pool a bright shade of green," the NYT reported.
"Even as the documents show workers were attempting to address deteriorating conditions, Trump administration officials were insisting publicly that the pool was pristine," the outlet added. ...
@#7 ... What was that Vietnam War thing about, anyway? ...
Domino Theory.
If Vietnam fell to the communists, the rest of Southeast Asia would follow.
(I summarize)